Knowledge of Public Health Ethics among Medical Doctors in Nigeria

Abstract:

This study is about the level of knowledge
of medical practitioners in Nigeria on the principles of Public health ethics
and the existence of national code of health research ethics in Nigeria. It is
a cross-sectional questionnaire-based study in which 158 medical doctors were
involved. Data analysis of the study showed that one hundred and forty (140)
respondents completely filled and returned the Questionnaires, which represents
a response rate of 88.9%. One hundred and twenty seven (127) Respondents (90.7%)
claimed to have had medical ethics as part of their medical education. The
Median duration of formal education or exposure to public health ethics was 5
hours (range:0-20 hours). Eighty four (84) respondents representing 60% of the
respondents claimed to be aware of the body saddled with supervising of health
research ethics in Nigeria, but only forty seven (47) representing 33.8% of the
respondent were able to mention the name of the committee responsible for
medical ethics in Nigeria as the National Health Research Ethics Committee
NHREC). Sixty eight respondents (48.6%) have a good knowledge of public health
ethics. Analysis of the identified public health ethics dilemma shows that end
of life was the highest mentioned (77.1%) followed by discharge against medical
advice (61.4%) and confidentiality by 60% of the respondent. The study thus
concluded that there is obvious inadequacies in public health ethics knowledge
among Nigerian medical doctors, and a clarion call should be directed at policy
makers to overhaul the present medical education curriculum in Nigeria to
include public health ethics at both the undergraduate and post graduate
levels.